Good morning, it’s Monday.
I have always been a big reader. This is probably in part due to the fact that I was an only child and we traveled a lot while I was growing up, so I didn’t have a lot of people to talk to or play with. I became such a voracious reader that I would read anything, any time, and anywhere – even in the shower, which drove my mother crazy and probably (in retrospect) wasn’t great for the water bill.
One of the non-book reading materials I really enjoyed pouring over as the Lillian Vernon catalog. If you’re not familiar with the company, it is a purveyor of one-of-a-kind, personalized gifts of the sort that no one really NEEDS but a lot of people seem to want.
The company at one time mailed out millions of catalogs, but reportedly grew too fast and faced unforeseen challenges created by the invention of online shopping. It was sold by its namesake founder, who died in 2015, went through bankruptcy, and changed hands several times. It’s now owned by a stationary and home decor company called Current USA and its stand-alone catalogue is long gone.
As I got older, I grew out of the colorful and whimsical Lillian Vernon universe and moved on to other catalogs. I was, for example, a big fan of the J. Peterman catalogue, (yes, the one that employed Elaine Benes in “Seinfeld” and also fired her multiple times). This catalogue, which reads like a travelogue and featured what appears to be hand-drawn illustrations of its offerings (mostly clothing and accessories sourced by its namesake owner from around the world) does still exist, though I haven’t seen it in years.
One upon a time, my mailbox was absolutely overflowing with catalogs – including a veritable ocean of them from Victoria’s Secret, even though I never ordered a single thing from that company. I assume this is because I once purchased something from somewhere and my information was promptly sold far and wide.
These days, though, weeks go by without a single catalog arriving in my mailbox. This is not a coincidence, and certainly not because I have stopped shopping – though usually I, like most other people, do that online. The helpful AI-driven interwebs tell me that the number of catalogs mailed out annually has dropped like a stone, falling by more than 50 percent between 2007 and 2017 – from 19.6 billion to 9.4 billion.
To be clear, 9.4 billion catalogs is still a LOT of trees sacrificed in the name of consumerism. Also, interesting, the US Postal Service is VERY interested in keeping catalogs alive – probably because the catalog and mail order industry generates about $125 billion in annual revenue, about $15.4 billion of which went to the USPS in 2024 (about 20 percent of its operating income).
When people do order from catalogs, it tends to be a seasonal thing – lots of shiny, colorful brochures hawking everything from clothing and toys to gourmet food and kitchen appliances – go out around the holiday season. That is not, however, how catalogs got their start, which, by the way dates back to the 1880s.
Sears, which, at its peak, was the largest retailer in the nation, was infamous for its iconic catalog, which, sadly, it discontinued in 1993 (a year before Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, FWIW). Sears didn’t send out the first catalog, however.
That honor goes to Montgomery Ward, a mail-order business, department story chain, and Sears competitor that no longer exists (in brick-and-mortar, anyway). The first Montgomery Ward catalog (which got it start as a single sheet of paper on which products and their prices were listed) was sent on this day in 1872, in an effort to make its products available to rural consumers and reduce costs by removing the middle man (the shopkeeper) from the sales equation.
The humble Montgomery Ward catalog eventually grew from just one page to more than 500, glossy, illustrated pages that sold some 20,000 items. To mark this momentous occasion that was the start in direct-to-consumer marketing, today is National Mail Order Catalog Day.
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we are definitely heading into the tail end of summer. Today’s weather will be decidedly fall-like, with temperatures topping out in the mid-to-high 70s, though skies will be sunny and clear. It’s almost – but not quite – sweater weather.
I have mixed feelings.
In the headlines…
Trump claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could bring the nation’s war with Russia to a halt “almost immediately,” if he’s willing to make two major concessions.
Trump called for Ukraine to drop its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), a demand long held by Russia, and also said there would be “no getting back” Crimea – signaling to the nation to accept Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of the region.
Key Putin aide and top Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev reshared the social media post by Trump laying out demands for Ukraine ahead of US talks with European leaders today.
Trump will host a summit today with Zelensky and a bodyguard of European leaders in the most important moment yet in a quickening push to end the brutal conflict that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Zelensky yesterday called for a “lasting” peace to end the war there, and warned that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had previously seized Ukrainian land as “a springboard for a new attack.”
The Trump administration this weekend downplayed a report that officials left in a public area of a hotel documents describing the confidential movements of Trump and Putin during their meeting in Alaska on Friday.
NPR reported that the documents were left on a printer in the Hotel Captain Cook in downtown Anchorage, near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where Trump and Putin had their meeting about the war in Ukraine.
Media criticism of the summit has focused on the lack of clear accomplishments from the meeting, and Trump’s decision to literally roll out a red carpet for the Russian leader.
Three Republican-led states – South Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia – will be deploying hundreds of National Guard members to Washington, DC, to bolster Trump’s crackdown on crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who pushed for earlier deployment of National Guard troops to the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, said that he welcomed Trump’s recent decision to send federal troops to Washington to combat crime.
Restaurant attendance in the nation’s capital has taken a dive in the wake of Trump’s Washington, D.C., crackdown on crime, according to data from OpenTable.
Hurricane Erin was churning through the Atlantic as a Category 4 hurricane early this morning, as forecasters said that it could double or even triple in size by the middle of this week.
While Erin won’t make a direct hit on the U.S., the hurricane is expected to create dangerous surf and rip currents in parts of the East Coast, including Florida. It could also affect the beaches of the Bahamas and Atlantic Canada.
The PSC, a state commission, usually has the final word on whether utility companies in New York are able to raise costs for ratepayers, but a new bill from a member of the state Legislature seeks to change that.
Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming an inescapable reality of modern life. If AI does bring a data center boom in New York and beyond, it could imperil the state’s clean energy goals and threaten affordability.
Over the past three decades, New York has seen a 32% decrease in volunteers, according to the Firefighters Association of the State of New York.
The Civil Service Employees Association announced that its former president, Danny Donohue, has died. He was 81.
New Yorkers fighting the opening of massive battery energy plants in their neighborhoods have a powerful new ally: US Environmental Protection Administrator Lee Zeldin.
A group of cannabis dispensary owners sued state regulators Friday, claiming they could be forced out of business because their storefronts were too close to schools after officials admitted that they had been incorrectly measuring the required distance.
The lawsuit filed in Albany Supreme Court challenges the recent reinterpretation of a state law requiring cannabis dispensaries to operate 500 feet away from a school.
In early July, Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned an immigrant from Laos to stave off his deportation, but unlike dozens of pardons she has granted before, the governor did not publicize this action. Somchith Vatthanavong, 52, had been convicted of manslaughter.
A looming fiscal cliff tied to Trump’s funding cuts has reignited a progressive push to raise taxes on the rich, and to cancel Hochul’s planned rebate checks for middle-class New Yorkers.
Hochul is spearheading a statewide campaign to boost student completion of crucial financial aid applications, emphasizing the importance of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, (FAFSA), and New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) forms.
Top New York Democrats will swallow hard and eventually endorse lefty socialist Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani for mayor, ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner predicts.
Political observers say there’s evidence Mamdani’s efforts to consolidate support with a move toward the center are succeeding.
Hochul threw cold water on Mamdani’s proposal to bring government-owned-and-operated grocery stores to the Big Apple, telling business leaders “I favor free enterprise,” at a Hamptons breakfast hosted by supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis.
Brooklyn Republican and staunch Zionist Inna Vernikov warned nonprofits to look elsewhere for funding if they support Mamdani or other “Hamas sympathizers.”
Mamdani has scored nearly $10 million in public matching funds for his campaign, despite having serious discrepancies in his mandatory financial disclosure filings.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, influential in some areas that Mamdani struggled to reach in the primary, declared the democratic socialist as “best candidate in the race” on Friday.
Mayor Eric Adams rebuked Mamdani’s longstanding push to decriminalize prostitution – questioning how somebody who calls himself religiously guided could ever support sex work.
“I can’t be more clear,” Adams said. “I’m a man of God, just as Mamdani says he’s a Muslim. I don’t know where in his Quran it states that it’s okay for a woman to be on the streets selling their body. I don’t know what Quran he is reading. It’s not in my Bible.”
Adams has been tapping into NYPD drone footage to get an immediate assessment during the city’s most critical emergencies, officials said.
A key selling point of Adams’ long-shot reelection bid in New York City is record job growth. But there’s a major caveat to his claims: He had little control over making it happen.
A Cuban-born biotech entrepreneur decided to make a long-shot bid for NYC mayor because he loathes the radical left-wing ideas pushed by Mamdani — and saw just how dangerous they are in real life.
Brooklyn construction company executive Erden Arkan was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $27,000 in fines Friday after pleading guilty to pumping illegal straw donations into Adams’ 2021 campaign coffers.
Though the related criminal case against Adams is over, it was revealed in court that Arkan has been cooperating in the CFB’s ongoing investigation into allegations that the mayor’s 2021 and 2025 campaigns engaged in a variety of straw donor schemes.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has overhauled his campaign strategy as he continues his bid to become mayor of New York City on a third-party line, growing more pointed in his criticism of Mamdani in an effort to win over both voters and donors.
Four people opened fire at a Brooklyn bar early yesterday morning, killing three and wounding nine others in what appeared to be a gang-related attack that sent patrons diving for cover and running for the exits.
City officials said they’re bracing for potential retaliation after a mass shooting left three dead and nine others wounded at a Brooklyn hookah bar early Sunday morning.
In response to the shooting, Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said they are assembling an outreach team to prevent retaliation.
Queens activists are demanding the FBI investigate the “foreign national” crime syndicates turning seedy Roosevelt Avenue into a “gangland” — claiming the criminals pose a national security threat.
In a NY Post op-ed, NYPD Commissioner Tisch said Raise the Age “allows too many violent teens to cycle through the system, unchallenged, back to playgrounds and reckless shoot-outs with few, if any, repercussions.”
Citi Bike riders will soon need to verify they’re 16 or older in order to use the service, according to city officials. Lyft, the ride-sharing company that operates Citi Bike, agreed to start using age verification after a request from First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro.
City Health Department officials should get on the stick and start providing randy New Yorkers with free condoms again, critics say.
With the start of the school year nearing, some residents are concerned about the Niskayuna school board’s delay in reviving a school resource officer program, with one parent accusing the board of “foot-dragging” in an email to the superintendent.
Dominick H. Purnomo, 45, an Albany-based restaurateur, was charged with driving while intoxicated Saturday, according to a report from State Police.
Fulton County leaders are pursuing millions of dollars to plug a gaping hole in the budget for a visitors center at the southwest gateway to the Adirondacks.
A man incarcerated at Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone was killed inside his cell last Thursday after a fight broke out, according to State Police.
About a quarter of a century ago, Republican Mayor Mike Stammel was a Democrat on the Common Council. Today, some of his most active supporters in the blue city are disaffected or former Democrats who’ve changed parties.
A judge has dismissed an appeal by a Schuylerville couple who had taken Lee Kindlon to small claims court, only to lose their case.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
